It decided to go ahead with it's plans anyway in a different country. India doesn't need the FCC's approval. The fact that they are an American company doesn't matter. They did not violate any FCC regulations.
> The fact that they are an American company doesn't matter
You are wrong. American companies are subject to American law, domestically and overseas. Moreover, there are international rules governing satellite orbits and communications. These rely on countries overseeing their satellites. That entire regulatory regime was circumvented by Swarm taking advantage of the FCC’s light-tough regulatory approach (with respect to satellites) and the Indian government’a similar trust in Swarm having gotten its paperwork in order before shipping its bird for deployment.
They are subject to American minimum wage laws which (currently) don't require them to pay foreign employees a minimum wage. For a counterpoint, USA citizens are subject to USA income taxes even if they aren't in USA and possibly have never earned a single cent in USA ever.
AFAIK,
the FCC doesn't give launch approval, despite the fact that it's rules include space safety rules. OTOH, they do give permission to operate space-based commercial radio stations which are used in services operating in the US market.
India probably should apply reasonable space safety rules to avoid populating LEO with dangerous space junk, but FCC approval is orthogonal to that, and India breaking the rules isn't an issue.
> The fact that they are an American company doesn't matter. They did not violate any FCC regulations.
If they use the radios on those satellites for a service in the US, it will matter a lot. If they don't, it might not
If they want to operate in America, they'll have to care about what the FCC says. And since they're an American company, skirting around the FCC's approval could mean this startup is about to shutdown.
